Skip to main content
All Stories Tagged:

Space

Verge Science is here to bring you the most up-to-date space news and analysis, whether it’s about the latest findings from NASA or comprehensive coverage of the next SpaceX rocket launch to the International Space Station. We’ll take you inside the discoveries of new exoplanets, space weather, space policy, and the booming commercial space industry.

E
External Link
SpaceX can reportedly block employees from selling shares over “dishonesty.”

Leaked documents viewed by TechCrunch say SpaceX can prevent former or current employees from selling shares during a tender offer if they engaged in “an act of dishonesty against the company” or violated policies.

Since SpaceX is a private company, this could prevent employees from selling their shares until SpaceX goes public — which may not even happen. SpaceX also reserves the right to buy back vested shares six months after an employee leaves the company, TechCrunch reports.


R
Youtube
All of the angles on the launch of SpaceX’s third Starship flight test.

The Starship was reported “lost” before it could splash down after reentry as planned. but for a better look at the takeoff, the folks at NASASpaceflight put together a few different camera angles from this morning’s events.


SpaceX successfully launched its Starship, but the vehicle was ‘lost’ after reentry

Two prior attempts exploded soon after launch, but this Starship prototype’s trip to space and back lasted 49 minutes.

No splashdown today.

Before the SpaceX broadcast ended, SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said, “the team has made the call that the ship has been lost, so no splashdown today.”


R
Twitter
Watch Starship’s reentry.

There’s no word on the status of Starship as the live video feed from the vehicle has ended for the moment, but you can see part of the reentry process in this clip posted by SpaceX.


Starship reentry views.

As Starship reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the external cameras are capturing the heat and plasma field generated.


Starship reentry
Image:SpaceX
The Starship won’t attempt an in-flight engine relight this time.

We’ve skipped over one planned element of this test flight, as the Starship 28 prototype continues on its way toward a planned splashdown.


View of Earth from an external camera on the Starship prototype
Image: SpaceX
Propellant transfer demo completed.

SpaceX finished another test for this Starship flight and ended internal views from the flight. As the live broadcast continues, it has gone in and out as the vehicle continues to barrel roll in space on its way to a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.


View of Earth from Starship vehicle in space.
Image: SpaceX
R
Twitter
Now Starship is in a “coast phase.”

The next milestone for this flight test is a planned in-space relight of the Raptor engines, which is scheduled for 40:46 into the flight, or a about 18 minutes from now.


R
Twitter
SpaceX says the Super Heavy booster “fell a little short” of its planned relight control.

On the stream, we watched the return of the Super Heavy booster rocket after separation, which seemed to have partial success on some of its planned maneuvers as it came back to Earth. The commentators noted it “feel a little short,” of the plan, but didn’t go into detail.


R
Twitter
Starship flight test three is under way.

The vehicle took off successfully and is now heading toward the “Hot-staging (Starship Raptor ignition and stage separation).”


R
Twitter
SpaceX’s Starship reentry plans.

As we wait to see if the Starship will launch, SpaceX posted this clip showing what the splashdown could be like.


R
Twitter
Chilling effects.

The countdown just crossed T-10 minutes and counting.


R
Twitter
Where is the Starship supposed to go?

If everything works out as planned, the Starship will attempt an in-space relight of its Raptor engines and eventually splash down in the Indian Ocean, as shown in this animation.


J
Twitter
SpaceX readies its third Starship rocket test flight: watch the launch here.

After the first two Starship tests went up in flames, SpaceX says it’s now attempting “a number of ambitious objectives” for today’s targeted 9:25AM ET launch, including:

The successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship. It will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean.


R
Youtube
SpaceX’s projected Starship launch time keeps moving.

If SpaceX attempts another Starship launch this morning, it now says the launch could happen about an hour and a half into the planned 110-minute launch window that started at 8AM ET.

An update from SpaceX said it is “go for propellant load,” and the launch is targeting 9:25AM ET. An official livestream has not started yet, but the folks at Spaceflight Now are broadcasting live with cameras set up near the Boca Chica, TX, launch site.

Update March 14th, 8:26AM ET: Updated launch timing (again) from SpaceX.


J
Youtube
Japan’s Space One rocket goes up in smoke.

The solid-fueled “Kairos” rocket carrying an experimental government satellite exploded just seconds after launching on Wednesday. The Space One startup had hoped to become the first private Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit.

‘The rocket terminated the flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult,’ company president Masakazu Toyoda said at a news conference.


Q
External Link
One small step for man, one potential nuclear step for mankind’s future on the Moon.

Space.com points out this recent announcement that China and Russia are considering putting a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2035, linked to their plans for a joint lunar outpost.

Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov says they’re readying technology that could carry out the mission autonomously — an ambitious statement considering it couldn’t quite nail an attempted lunar landing last August.


Stratolaunch, still in the game, pulls off a powered hypersonic test flight.

This is the first successful powered flight of its reusable Talon-A TA-1 autonomous hypersonic plane, which it announced yesterday “reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5” during the test.

The TA-1 launched from Roc, its massive twin-fuselage plane that recently flew with the TA-1, attached and fully-fueled for the first time. Eventually, the company hopes to launch space planes from the 385-foot-wide flier.


J
External Link
House Democrats are looking into Russia’s alleged Starlink use.

The Washington Post reports that Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia sent a letter to SpaceX on Wednesday night, expressing concern that the company “may not have appropriate guardrails and policies in place” to prevent Russia from illegally acquiring Starlink terminals.

Ukraine claims that Russia has deployed the terminals in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says, “To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.”


A
Twitter
Maybe third time’s the charm for SpaceX’s Starship.

The third flight test for the Starship rocket might take place on March 14th at 7:30AM ET, SpaceX has announced on X. (This is assuming the FAA signs off, and that it's not delayed for some other reason.)

Starship’s last two tests failed memorably; during the most recent November launch the booster and Starship exploded after their separation.


T
External Link
Starlink just got cheaper, again.

In some countries including the Netherlands (where I live), the price has dropped to €50/mth (from €65/mth) for residential customers while my roam plan that lets me take my dishy anywhere in Europe has dropped to €59/mth (from €100/mth), down from €124/mth when I started service back in 2022. One-time hardware costs have now been lowered from €450 to €225, as well, down from the €720 I paid for gen 1.


J
The Verge
The methane-tracking satellite Jeff Bezos essentially paid for just launched.

But it’s not on one of his rockets. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is carrying MethaneSat, a satellite made to measure the potent greenhouse gas methane. The Bezos Earth Fund gave the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) $100 million to build and launch the satellite. Google is also partnering with EDF to create a global map of methane pollution coming from oil and gas infrastructure.


W
Youtube
NASA will stream its next astronaut launch at 10:53PM ET tonight.

NASA’s Crew-8 mission, comprised of US astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, is set to fly to the International Space Station, where they’ll serve a six month stint as flight engineers.

Weather halted yesterday’s planned takeoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA writes on Crew-8’s mission blog that after launch, video coverage will stop until about 1AM ET on March 5th.


W
Youtube
Re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere in 4K.

Varda Space Industries captured its W-1 capsule’s descent from low-earth orbit for the rest of us to watch in 4K on YouTube. Ars Technica has a thorough write-up about the mission.

Varda’s clip isn’t quite as dramatic as the 25-minute Artemis I reentry video you can download from NASA, but the clarity makes it a sight to behold.


W
Twitter
Never say die when it comes to Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper.’

Yesterday, it responded after a roughly two-week lunar night — something that was possible, but not expected. Japan’s space agency cut off contact to protect it from mid-day lunar temperatures but did get pictures.

Japan’s SLIM lander already regained power once after landing upside-down on the Moon last month. Guess it takes more than a lunar night to get rid of the MOON SNIPER!


R
Youtube
The Odysseus lunar lander is lying on its side.

During a NASA press conference Friday evening, Intuitive Machines co-founder and CEO Steve Altemus showed the attitude of its lunar lander, the first from the US to reach the Moon’s surface in over 50 years.

As Swapna Krishna explains, they believe it tipped over after catching a foot on the surface while landing, but fortunately, it’s still getting sunlight to power the battery. Plans for the coming days include deploying a CubeSat it’s carrying called EagleCam to take photos from the surface.


R
Youtube
Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander is on the Moon.

After a stressful few minutes of waiting beyond the estimated 6:24PM ET touchdown, the mission director said, “...we can confirm, without a doubt, our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and we are transmitting.”


J
External Link
Delta is offering a special flight for solar eclipse fans.

The flight on April 8th has been adjusted for the next total solar eclipse to spend as much time as possible within the path of totality — the duration in which the Moon completely blocks out the sun.

Delta flight 1218 will be specifically operated on an A220-300, which will offer especially premium viewing due to the aircraft’s extra-large windows. The flight will depart from Austin at 12:15 p.m. CT and land in Detroit at 4:20 p.m. ET — timed to give those on board the best chance of safely viewing the solar eclipse at its peak.

Roundtrip tickets are currently priced at $1,357 in the main cabin, which is more than double the usual fare. Still, that might be worth it since according to NASA it’ll be the last total eclipse visible from North America until 2044.


Sing to me of the Earth, Muse.

Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander snapped a few selfies with ol’ Mother Earth yesterday while on its way to the Moon.

There are a few more high-res pictures over at Intuitive Machines’ website. If Odysseus succeeds in its mission, it will be the first successful US-launched Moon landing in over 50 years.


A picture of the Earth, with the legs of the Odysseus craft in view in the right side of the frame.
Odysseus takes a look back at the Earth.
Image: Intuitive Machines
W
External Link
Is this the end for NASA’s Voyager 1 probe?

NASA engineers told Space that “effectively, the call between the spacecraft and the Earth was still connected” after its transmissions stopped making sense last year, “but Voyager’s ‘voice’ was replaced with a monotonous dial tone.”

The scientists are reportedly holding out hope they can fix it, but if they aren’t able to, that would leave Voyager 2 as humanity’s only still-communicating spacecraft in interstellar space.


Here’s the final sample material from the Bennu asteroid.

After the sample was returned last year and NASA scientists went through some tribulation to break into the canister containing it, they say they gathered 121.6 grams of asteroid bits from Bennu.

NASA had hoped to gather at least 60 grams of material from the asteroid when its OSIRIS-REx mission craft punched its surface in 2020.


A picture of eight triangular sample trays, the two right-middle ones perhaps filled with a quarter of that, the bottom left two far less so, and the remaining one with only a few bits of material.
NASA’s final Bennu asteroid sample.
Image: Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold / NASA